Bleed:
What, Why & How?

When it comes to printing, bleed ensures that your design runs right to the edge of the final product—no unexpected white borders. It’s an extra border (usually 1-5mm) around your artwork that gets trimmed off, leaving a clean, professional finish. Whether you're printing a business card, flyer, sticker, sign, or anything else, adding bleed guarantees that your design looks flawless.

Why do I need to include Bleed my file?

There will always be a small amount of movement (up to 1-2mm) during the print and finishing process. This is unavoidable due to:

  • Paper, vinyl and other print substrates by nature, stretch and shrink slightly as they heat and cool during the print and finishing processes.
  • Printing and finishing is completed across multiple machines. While each machine reads the registration marks of the previous one, there can be a small amount of movement, and this can be exasperated by any stretch or shrinkage in the media.

If your artwork is the exact size you want the finished document, you may see a fine line of unprinted media at the very edge when the page is trimmed. To prevent this, you should always add bleed to your artwork; that is, make your artwork wider and taller than the trim size of the page.

How much Bleed is required?

The amount of bleed required is different for different products and print processes.

Table below outlines the bleed (how far the background image colour should extend past the edge of your design), and internal margin (how far text/ important content should be inset from the edge of your design), for a range of products.

How to setup bleed, Click here!

Need Help?

Please note print pricing is applicable only to “Press Ready” files, prepared as outlined below, or as may be alternately specified for certain product lines.

Any job submitted which requires artwork, or does not meet the required specifications may be subject for re-quotation. Please click here for additional Terms and Conditions.

If providing your own artwork, please ensure it meets the following specifications:


Artwork with bleed, margin & cut-line Sample

Using Ambigram Artwork of  Kulchur Junkies
kulchure-junkies -sample print ready - samedayprintinng -v2
kulchure-junkies -sample print ready - samedayprintinng - v1

 Print Media

Size

Bleed (mm)

Minimum

Internal Margins (mm)

Optimal Internal Margins (mm)

Print Marks

Paper

Singles

3mm

3mm (if paper stickers is under 15mm,

2mm allowable)

5mm

Trim Marks

Vinyl

6mm - A3

A2+ Shape Cut

A2+ Straight Edge

2mm

5mm

5mm

2mm

5mm

5mm

5mm

8mm

8mm

Cutline

Cutline

Trim Marks

Apparel

Any

2mm

2mm

5mm

None. File must be vector.

Poster (Paper or Synthetic print media)

Any

5mm

5mm

8mm

Trim Marks

Hemmed Banner

Any

25mm

50mm

60mm

Trim Marks

Rectractable Banner

Any

5mm

20mm

50mm

Trim Marks

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